The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-10-07
THE woNDROUs TEACHER.

And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended
these sayings, the people were astonIshed al
his doctrines; for He taught them as one hay.
ing authority, and not as the scribes.-Matt
vii; %, %.
The teaching of the scribes was narrow,
dogmatic, material; it was cold in manner,
frivolous in matter, secondhand, and tier
alive in its very essence; with no freshness
in it, no force, no fire; servile to all au-
thority, opposed to all independence; at
once erudite and foolish, at once
contemptous and mean; never pass
ing a hairs breadth beyond the carefully
watched boundary line of commentary and
precedent; full of balanced inference and
orthodox hesitancy, and impossible literal
ism; intricate with legal pettiness and lab
yrinthine system; elevating mere memory
above genius, and repetition above origi-
nality; concerned only about priests and
Pharisees, in temple and synagogue, or
school or sanhedrim, and mostly occupied
with things infinitely little. 1t was not in
deed wholly devoid of moral significance,
nor is it impossible to find here and there,
among the debris of it, a noble thought;
but it was occupied a thousandfold more
with Levitical minuentiA about mint, and
anise, and cummin, and the length OF
fringes, and the breadth of phylacteries,
and the washing of cups and platters, and
the particular quarter of a second when
new moons and Sabbath days began. But
this teaching of Jesus was wholly different
in its character, and as much grander as
the temple of the blue heaven under which
it was uttered was grander than the sitting
synagogue or crowded school. 1t dealt not
with %scrupulous tithes and ceremonial
cleansing, but with the human soul, and
human destiny, and human lifc-with
Hope, and Charity, and Faith. There were
no definitions in it, or explanations, or
scholastic systems" or philosophic theor-
izing, or implicated mazes of difficult and
dubious discussion, but q swift, intuitive
insight into the very depths of the human
heart, even a supreme and daring paradox
that, without being fenced round with ex-
captions or limitations, appealed to the con-
science with its irresistible simplicity, and
with an absolute mastery stirred and dom
mated over the heart. Springing from the
depths of holy emotions, it thrilled the be-
ing of every listener as with Ill electric
flame. II a word, its authority was the
authority of the Divine In%carnate; it was
a voice of God, speaking in the utterance
of man; its austere purity was yet pervaded
with tenderest sympathy, and its awful Sc
verify with an unutterable love. 1t was,
to borrow the image of the wisest of the
Latin Fathers, a great sea whose smiling
surface broke into refreshing ripples at
the feet of the little ones, but into whose
~unfathomable depths the wisest might gaze
with the shudder of amazement and the
thrill of love.-(IIow obviously truthful
and natural, then, the last touch of the
evangelist in his account of the great Ser
mon on the Mount-"And it came to pass
when Jesus had ended these savings, the
people were astonished at his doctrines:
for He taught them as one having author
ity. and not as the Scribes. ")-Fdrrar's
Tiff of Christ.